'Flicker Phantom'
With enough speed to seemingly blur out of existence, Shiki moved in.
The result however, seemed to be the same as before, the moment his chakra blade was about to hit, the captain showed an inhuman reaction time, instantly countering.
But by the time the swing arrived, nothing was there and the boy had already taken his back.
With a shout of exertion, the man twisted around as fast as possible with a Kiai burst, barely parrying Shiki's blade before the boy disappeared again.
Unlike before however, the captain's neck showed a shallow slash wound, if his parry had come just a little later, he would be a dead man.
His expression remained cool though, showing he was calm and collected, as if life and death were concerns he had long abandoned.
'Hmm . . . Better not target vital areas again, lest I kill him by accident.' Shiki thought with relief.
Clearly, he had overestimated his opponent's capabilities and nearly killed him with a speed blitz.
Fortunately though, the boy's max speed was just at the bare limit of what the man could handle so long as the attack was not sustained.
'So I just need to aim at less critical points and space out my attacks.' Shiki concluded and put his thoughts into action straight away.
Like an untraceable ghost, the boy came and went, his blade glowing with the power of the Chakra Cutter jutsu, making even relatively light attacks a tangible threat that required a lot of power to defend against.
Slowly but surely, the captain started to be burdened by small wounds, progressively hampering his ability to mount a proper defence, much less an actual counter.
The man was no fool, he could tell the enemy wanted him alive, the fact that the boy immediately stopped aiming for his vitals the moment he came close to killing him was the best proof.
A mistake on Shiki's part for sure.
Regardless, if the captain remained unable to fight back however, these realizations would be ultimately meaningless.
Shiki was too fast to counter, but after repeated clashes, the captain of the ambushers was slowly feeling out the boy's rhythm.
'It is pointless to try a precise attack since I can't narrow down his angle of attack but if I get the timing right . . .' The man prepared for his final resistance.
The boy kept up his hit and run tactics, unaware of what was coming.
He could sense the intent to fight back from his enemy but the actual plan eluded him.
'Sensei is almost done so it doesn't matter anyway. This guy must have extremely good internal control of his body and chakra for her to take as long as she has.' Shiki thought.
There was only one final attack to ensure the captain remained pinned.
Unfortunately for the boy, the man too, had decided to gamble on this next attack as well.
Shiki dashed in, his blinding speed making him outright invisible.
But the captain was not looking to pin him with his senses.
Calculating the timing based on the boy's past attacks, he unleashed his strongest wide area attack at the time he predicted the attack would come.
'Shura Style: Heavy Storm'
A powerful tornado of chakra blades, similar, yet far more powerful and solid than the one that the captain unleashed to block Shiki's Assault Storage: Shadow Hand, manifested with roaring rage.
The chakra infused mist was momentarily pushed back as dozens of large trees in the vicinity were slashed into small pieces.
As for Shiki . . .
A few dozen meters away, with his body covered in shallow slash wounds his body control prevented from bleeding, the boy was cursing himself for his carelessness.
'I'm getting way too cocky with how well everything is going . . .'
A Hollow's inner nature prevented them from excessively playing around or needlessly provide the enemy opportunities for comeback but it did not eliminate the overwhelming confidence in their own abilities that ultimately led to the Ryumon's extermination.
Luckily, the captain's move was just the slightest bit rushed, giving Shiki a small window to pull back with only a couple of shallow wounds that would close up in a few seconds with a healing focused use of Nirvana Art: Dragon Heart.
"Are you okay!?" Mei rushed towards the boy, hurriedly inquiring.
"I'm good. Managed to get away in time." Shiki replied, much to the bespectacled girl's relief as she watched the wounds on the boy's body slowly close and disappear.
As for the man who inflicted them, by the time the blade storm dispersed, he was already paralyzed by Inori's Ninja Art: Mind-Body Jamming jutsu.
It was a more insidious version of her Mind Jamming Wave which rather than simply create a disturbance that scrambled the mind's signals to the body, it completely jammed the Mind-Body connection, leaving the target completely helpless.
It took more time to set up and it was single-target but it robbed the enemy of their ability to resist, they couldn't move in the slightest or even speak, a complete shutdown of the body's every non-essential function.
"Got careless there at the end, Shiki." Inori joined the pair as they approached their neutralized opponent.
"I know, I know." The boy replied with a frustrated tone, more at himself than anything else.
"Just making sure." The Violet Rose replied.
Shinka had also retracted her insects already and quickly rendezvoused with the Team.
"Alright team! Shinka, clean up the battlefield. Shiki, scout the surroundings and make sure no more surprises are heading our way for the time being. Mei, help tie this guy up and cover me while I carry him back to the caravan. Shiki and Shinka will join us when they're done."
Inori quickly gave out her orders and the Team moved to execute.
Shiki quickly spawned a couple of shadow clones that scattered in multiple directions to widen his sensory range while the original remained bedding with Shinka while she used her insects to dispose of the enemies' remains.
{The enemy was too well trained. There will be a lot more trouble before the mission is completed.} Shinka signed to the boy.
"You're right. The situation has shifted enough that we can legally abandon the mission without infringing upon the village's rules." Shiki replied.
{Should we?} The Aburame inquired in sign.
But from her demeanour, it was clear she was not fond of the idea.
Shiki found it quite endearing how easy it was to read the girl once you hanged around her long enough, despite how she completely covered every inch of her body in several layers of clothing.
"Considering our abilities, there is no need for that just yet. Besides, my intuition tells me we can gain a lot for the village out of this little incident." The boy claimed in response.
'Well it will benefit the village and myself along with Mito-sama. As for the rest of the political factions . . .' He added in thought.
Unaware of Shiki's scheming, Shinka just nodded at his spoken response in agreement.
As for the possible benefits, everyone in Team 6 had learned not to doubt Shiki's terrifying intuition.
After a few more minutes of silent work, Shiki felt his shadow clones disperse, transmitting the information that the area was clear.
Shinka's insects finished their meal soon after and the pair began their trek back to the caravan.
The first major conflict of the escort mission was officially over.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -